


An Ember in the Ashes

by TheTrickyOwl



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: And Very Dumb, Bottom Galo Thymos, Burning Rescue Lio Fotia, Dirty Talk, FWB (Lio/Gueira/Meis), Fluff and Smut, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Hurt/Comfort, Lio is bad at feelings, M/M, Mutual Pining, Porn with Feelings, Smut, Tender Sex, Threesome, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Top Lio Fotia, galolio, liogalo, they are very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:09:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21854275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTrickyOwl/pseuds/TheTrickyOwl
Summary: For a moment, Lio’s heart stuttered, aching with something he was too frightened to name. Something that called just as fiercely as his soul called for his Promare. An ember waiting for the single exhale that would turn it into a firestorm, leaving him in ruin.
Relationships: Gueira & Meis, Lio Fotia & Gueira & Meis, Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 21
Kudos: 311





	An Ember in the Ashes

The sweat built in sheets, rushing in rivulets down the two familiar bodies he was pinned between, soaking deep like a wash of summer rain. It was a tangle of slickened limbs, of messy open-mouthed kisses exchanged in the heated dark, meaning nothing and everything at once. Their exhales were searing, a roar, a firestorm against his ears, high and heady with desire. 

Back arcing, Lio growled between clenched teeth, blunt nails tearing down Meis’ shoulder blades as he rutted their cocks together above him, dark hair swaying in a long, sweat-soaked curtain. At his back, Gueira keened low and buried his face against the back of Lio’s neck, pumping slow and deep into the heat of his boss’ pliant body, striking his sweet spot each time.

“_Harder_,” Lio gritted, desperate for the burn building low in his abdomen. Desperate for the wildfire to overtake him in all its brief and fleeting ways. His breath caught, and his eyes rolled back into his head. “M’close.”

“We got you, boss,” Meis panted against the curve of his cheek, and Lio released a soft whine as his General’s calloused thumb teased the leaking crown of his cock. “We’ll take care of you.”

“A-Always,” Gueira added, his own voice wrecked at Lio’s back as he pounded up into him, the couch springs squealing beneath their combined weight.

Lio practically choked out a sob as the pressure built higher within him, trapped between two men he loved as brothers, and who loved him just as fiercely in return, but not nearly in the way they loved each other. It’s something Lio knew, of course. Something he accepted and respected in this unspoken agreement between them. He was the third wheel. The outsider. And still, Meis and Gueira welcomed him into their arms, into their bed, open and willing to sate the needs of their once-Burnish Leader, to drive away the ache Lio was too proud to speak aloud.

The ache for a foolish, reckless man who burned brighter than Lio ever has or ever will again.

“F-Fuck!” He shouted, voice cracking. His veins were molten, his blood was steaming. It was getting harder and harder to catch his breath. Lio then made the mistake of closing his eyes, for when he did, all he saw was that familiar gleaming smile, those powerful shoulders, that tender gaze as blue as a field of cornflowers. And he whimpered, soft and fragile, thankful that neither of his Generals called attention to the sound as he buried his face in Meis’ shoulder. His skin smelled like all those who had once been Burnish; like the embers of an extinguished fire, heavy with woodsmoke and ash. It was pleasant as it was heartbreaking. “Shit… I’m… I-I’m…”

And then Gueira murmured against the shell of his ear. “It’s okay, boss. Think of him. Pretend its him.”

Lio winced, wishing desperately that they didn’t know his heart as well as they did. “I can’t…”

“You can. You need it,” Meis reassured him softly, before brushing some of Lio’s hair aside with his free hand. “C’mon boss. Come for us. Come for him.”

Unable to hold on any longer, he succumbed to the storm of wildfire within, letting it consume him fully in a rush of overwhelming heat that threw his head back, a single name tumbling brokenly from his mouth as he spilled across his own stomach. 

“Galo!”

And they held him through it without judgement. They let him come apart, following close behind with cries of their own, sharing a brief taste of the burn they’d once commanded together. All too soon, however, it left them, snuffed out like a match in a windstorm, and they ached as one in the afterglow as the cold quickly set in.

* * *

“Are you ever going to tell him?”

Lio regarded Gueira’s question with a slight incline of his head, perched on the windowsill of the little apartment his Generals shared together. Outside, the snow tumbled from the blackened skies in droves, and if he found himself leaning a little closer to the flame he held beneath the end of his unlit cigarette, that was just his business. He could hear the clacks and rattles of Meis in the nearby kitchen, preparing a tumbler of scalding black coffee for Lio to carry on his trek back to the flat he shared with Galo a few blocks east.

“Tell who what?” Lio asked, playing oblivious as he exhaled a plume into the air between them. It didn’t smell like proper smoke, too heavily tinged in chemicals. 

Gueira was smoking as well, lounging against the couch they’d wrecked earlier in a pair of baggy joggers and nothing else. “The firefighting dingus you’re so sweet on,” he responded. “You gonna let him know you’re into him or what?”

They’ve had this conversation before, and every time, Lio offered the same deadpan response.

“He isn’t interested.”

Gueira looked unconvinced. “Did he tell you that?”

“He doesn’t have to,” Lio frowned. “We’ve been living together for two months. If there were any feelings to act on, he would have acted by now. He’s not exactly known for his subtlety.”

“He could be shy.”

“Galo Thymos and ‘shy’ don’t even belong together in the same sentence.”

Meis appeared in the kitchen doorway with coffees in hand, the steam rising in soft white coils. “Why don’t you just make the first move, then? You’ve never hesitated about getting what you wanted before.”

“Between work, rebuilding the city, and helping us move the Burnish to this apartment building, Galo’s also been dealing with Kray’s trial,” Lio explained softly, tapping out his cigarette in one of the many ashtrays scattered about the apartment. He ran gloved fingers back through his pale hair, the soft ends drawn back into a small knot. “Regardless of my opinion on the former Governor, Galo loved him once, and he’s been in shambles over testifying against the man he’d once called his hero.”

He recalled late nights stumbling upon Galo pacing a hole into the kitchen floor while pouring over his notes for the trial, tears thick in his voice. Recalled the way the firefighter’s hands trembled so violently before the initial hearing that he couldn’t knot his own tie, mumbling a soft thanks as Lio wordlessly swept in and did it for him.

With a sigh, Lio slid off the windowsill and reached for the winter coat he’d slung over the back of the couch upon arriving hours before. “It just feels wrong to take advantage of someone that vulnerable.”

He caught the look Meis and Gueira exchanged in the silence that followed, a strange wordless communication that he’d never quite understood.

“Look, boss, we’re not trying to pry or tell you how to live, but…” Meis’ brows furrowed as he came to extend the steaming tumbler of coffee. “We see the way he looks at you.”

“With fondness,” Gueira added, smiling. “Soft, dopey fondness.”

Lio scoffed into the warmth of the knitted scarf he wound multiple times around the lower half of his face. He then plopped the matching hat over his head, a gift from Lucia when she noticed him shivering one night at the station while finishing paperwork. “He looks at everyone like that. He’s a man-shaped golden retriever.”

“You’re really not gonna listen to us, are you?” Gueira cocked a brow.

Lio smirked and took the offered coffee, savoring the heat seeping through the leather of his gloves. “Do I ever?”

“Point taken.”

He left his Generals shortly afterward for one last patrol of the quiet halls in the building now serving as shelter for those he’d spent years fighting to protect. Muffed voices, music, and laughter emanated from within the apartments Lio drifted past, dragging the corners of his mouth upward in a gentle smile as he made for the elevators. A trio of small children, sock-footed and giggling, suddenly rounded the corner and forced Lio to leap out of the way to avoid a head-on collision.

“Hi boss! Bye boss!” One of them squealed with a little wave.

He then jumped when the door at his back swung open with a rush to reveal an old woman he remembered from the Burnish settlement in the Wastelands, stout and swaddled in a puffy robe with two layers of socks beneath her slippers.

“Lio Fotia,” she hummed, round spectacles catching the hallway light as she adjusted them. “Whatever are you still doing here so late? You’ve been around since dawn.”

Lio chuckled. “Just making sure everyone is settling in alright, Mrs. Yen.”

“Oh, you need to stop worrying so much, child. It’s thanks to you and that very loud fellow from Burning Rescue that we’re even able to start anew to begin with. You’ve done more than enough for us once-Burnish,” she said. The scent of something deliriously sweet was wafting out toward him from the apartment behind her, like brown sugar and clove. “You deserve rest.”

“I’ll consider it.” He lied. “What about you? How are you? Warm enough?”

“Ah, it’s never warm enough for us anymore, you know that,” she sighed, a twinge of sadness weighing on the curve of her smile. “I wouldn’t mind one more space heater, if that wouldn’t be too much trouble, of course? Winter feels so different, now.”

“I’ll talk to Ignis about it first thing in the morning. Maybe see if I can snag some extra blankets, too.”

“You are too good to us, Lio Fotia. Here, wait a moment…” He watched as Mrs. Yen slipped back into the apartment for a few moments, before quickly reappearing with a little Tupperware that she extended up toward him. “Gingersnaps fresh from the oven. You can share them with that sweet boy you’re always with. Uh… Gino, right?”

Lio took the offered gift with a laugh. “Galo.”

“Galo, yes. Right. I like him.”

He clutched the tumbler of coffee a little tighter, then, cradling the heat against his chest when his heart withered with quiet yearning. “Me, too.”

* * *

The walk back to Galo’s place was torturous, the vicious wind cutting beneath the layers he’d buried himself in to run across his skin like the edge of a sharpened blade. Teeth chattering, Lio slipped in through the door as quietly as possible, trekking in sleet and plumes of flurries that soaked into the dark vinyl flooring beneath his boots. He was wracked with shivers. He could barely manage to keep his gloved hands steadied as he set the coffee and cookies onto the front table and shrugged out of his coat as quickly as possible, cursing as rivulets of melted snow slid beneath the collar of his shirt to sweep like an icy finger down the curve of his naked spine.

“F-Fucking h-hell…” he hissed, jaw aching as it chattered. He threw his soaked coat onto the hanger next to Galo’s. “F-F-Fuck snow. Fuck win… w-winter. F-Fuck… m-my life…”

Stripped all the way down to skinny jeans, thick socks, and black t-shirt, Lio rubbed his leather-clad fingers over his bare arms, feeling as though frost had begun to settle in his bones, the cold sinking deep and devastating. His nose had begun to run. The ends of his hair were drenched and frozen. The skin on his cheeks was flushed pink and stinging as it slowly thawed in the warmth of the room. 

The apartment was dark, quiet. Items in hand, Lio’s steps whispered from the entryway and across the rug in the main living space, where he paused upon catching sight of the hulking figure sprawled out gracelessly across the leather couch. One arm thrown over his eyes, Galo was out like a light, massive chest rising and falling with his deep, slumbering breaths. His socks were brightly colored and mismatched. There was a gaming controller rested on his stomach with the word RESTART? blinking on the flatscreen nearby.

For a moment, Lio’s heart stuttered, aching with something he was too frightened to name. Something that called just as fiercely as his soul called for his Promare. An ember waiting for the single exhale that would turn it into a firestorm, leaving him in ruin.

Soundlessly, he swept behind the couch and toward the kitchen, letting the very tips of his gloved fingers brush against a crown of wild blue spikes as he went. Galo murmured something indistinguishable in response, but didn’t wake, turning over with a grunt and a snore muffled by the cushions beneath his face.

He didn’t normally do this. Had he fallen asleep waiting for Lio to return?

The light above the stove was on, gleaming buttery and soft across the slate counter and the little post-it note he saw stuck to the lid of a pizza box. Lio picked it up, brow furrowed curiously, before warmth bloomed in the deepest hollows of his soul.

**GRABBED PIZZA WITH THE SQUAD AFTER WORK AND BROUGHT YOU THE EXTRAS IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T EATEN! SORRY IF THEY’RE COLD!! HOPE YOU GOT HOME SAFE!!! :)  
\-- GALO THYMOS**

“Idiot,” Lio whispered, tender and endearing as he smiled against the backs of his fingers. Leave it to the big moron to sign his full name at the bottom of a post-it that sounded like it was shouting at him.

He slipped the note into his pack pocket and flipped the lid open, revealing four lukewarm slices of Inferno Volcano Margherita. He didn’t mind the temperature, and promptly shoved a cold slice into his mouth, holding it in place with his teeth as he set the tupperware of cookies next to the box for Galo to enjoy before leaving for his shift in the morning. The cheese wasn’t quite melty anymore, but the sauce still sung with spice as it soaked into his tongue.

He ate slowly, thoughtfully, hip rested against the counter as he watched curtains of snow batter against the nearest window. He thought of the last two months since the battle against Kray. Thought of the countless Burnish lives sacrificed, the countless more yet to truly heal from the tortures they’d endured, tucked away in a newly renovated apartment complex in hopes of achieving some small semblance of normalcy after their fire had been snuffed out.

A part of Lio envied those who felt relief without the songs of the Promare ringing in their ears, crying to burn brighter, hotter, faster. Calling for the world to blaze with all the light of a collapsing star. Sometimes, Lio felt that he could still sense them tingling at the very tips of his fingers, his nerve endings alight with something he couldn’t explain.

It was impossible, he knew. But it was better than the emptiness he still struggled to ignore.

Without thought, he flicked the dial on the gas stove, watching as one of the elements ignited in a ring of blue flame. Tugging off his glove with his teeth, Lio reached out, letting his hand hover just above the sweltering waves of heat. Sweat built instantaneously on his palm, a reaction he still wasn’t used to as he allowed the sensation to seep into his hand like a crackling bonfire licking at a log.

To think he had once commanded such power…

“That’s a fire hazard, you know.”

Lio started at the sudden voice behind him, causing his hand to slip right into the open flame. The pain was… startling. Paralyzing, prompting him to leap back with a sharp curse, agony rocketing up through his arm. The side of his hand and pinky were blistering and red.

“Ah! Fuck!” He hissed, cradling his hand to his chest.

Galo was on him in an instant, sleep-mussed and wretchedly soft in his bright red hoodie, those big eyes wide with worry. He took Lio’s slender wrist in his hands, cradling it as though it were moments from crumbling to ash again. “Shit, Lio! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

Lio grit his teeth, more than just the sting making his eyes water. “Fine. It’s fine.”

He was tugged abruptly toward the sink where his hand was quickly shoved beneath a stream of ice-cold water. It managed to soothe the initial burn, but the ache ran fierce and bone deep, making him bite on the inside of his cheek until he tasted copper.

“And here I thought I was supposed to be the only idiot in this arrangement,” the other man whispered, brows drawn tight with concern as he kept Lio’s hand beneath the water for a few moments longer. The words were spoken without harshness, the slight curve of his lip indicating that he was attempting to make light of the situation to ease Lio’s distress.

That was the thing about Galo Thymos. How safe he made everyone feel despite his relentless showboating. He was natural born rescuer, empathetic and loyal to a fault, blazing with that burning firefighter soul he so often liked to remind everyone he possessed.

“You good, firebug?” Galo asked, sliding those startling cornflower blues in Lio’s direction.

Lio swallowed hard, the nickname that had suddenly become a term of endearment sending a quiet little thrill up his spine. “Yeah.”

“I don’t mean the burn.”

There was a tinge of sadness in his tone. An understanding, even though he had never been a Burnish himself. If Lio could somehow sink into Galo’s body right then and there, he would have. 

“Yeah.” His voice was tight. “Just… long day.”

Nodding, Galo gently turned Lio’s hand to examine the damage in the soft light. “It’s not too bad. Nothing I can’t fix here at home.”

“Really, you don’t have to. I can do it.”

“Nonsense!” Galo perked up with a smile as he suddenly dragged Lio toward the nearby bathroom. “Like I’ve said before, getting scorched is part of what we do. I’ve got licensed training and plenty of medical supplies handy for just the occasion. It’s the least I can do for spooking you like that.”

And that’s how Lio ended up plunked down on the edge of the bathtub, burnt hand throbbing in his lap as Galo rifled through the mirrored cabinet just above the sink. He drew out a half-empty tube of burn ointment, medical pads, some white gauze, and a little box of colorful band-aids. 

“This should do the trick,” Galo beamed before dropping to one knee before Lio, ointment in hand. He squeezed a large dollop into his fingers and took a moment to warm it before gingerly swiping a generous layer over Lio’s reddened skin. His bottom lip was jutting out; a tick Lio had taken note of whenever Galo concentrated a little too hard. “How’s that? Painful?”

Lio shook his head.

“Awesome. Okay, just hold your hand up like this. Little more?” Galo’s smile was glinting as he guided Lio through the process, voice unfathomably gentle. “Yeah, perfect. Now just keep the pad in place while I wrap it up in gauze. Don’t want it slipping off the burn.”

Lio did as he’s told without protest, watching in quiet awe as his hand was carefully bound in layers of soft medical linen. The pain had dulled substantially to a quiet throb. Nothing he couldn’t tolerate, and he gave his fingers an experimental little flex once the gauze was in place.

“…Thank you,” he whispered.

“Wait. One more thing!” Galo said, just before slapping a band-aid over the end of the gauze to secure it. A band-aid, Lio realized, that was adorned in little cartoon fire trucks. “Ta daaaa!”

Lio blinked, then fixed him with a deadpan look. “Really.”

“What?” Galo crossed both arms over his chest as it puffed out proudly. “I have a brand, and I stick by it.”

“You’re such a moron.”

“At least I don’t shove my hand into fire.”

“That was _your_ fault!”

Galo’s retort died in his throat when the light suddenly went out above them, plunging the bathroom into startling darkness. “The hell?”

Lio huffed, bangs fluttering.

Keeping close, they slowly made their way back out into the main area, soon realizing they were dealing with more than just a simple popped bulb. The power appeared to have gone out in the entire flat, and Lio quickly rushed over to the nearest window to peer out through the blinding rush of snowfall toward the streets below. He couldn’t see any traffic lights or the glow of neighboring buildings, staring out at an endless expanse of choking black.

His cell vibrated in his jeans, and he answered hastily. “Gueira?”

“Boss, hey, you guys have power over there? The whole building just went dark.”

Lio’s mouth pressed into a thin line, dread settling fast as he thought about an entire complex of once-Burnish suddenly without heat. “Looks like the storm took out the whole city.”

“Shit.”

“You and Meis need to round everyone up and bring them into the main foyer.” He ordered, already headed for the door. “Gather any blankets, extra clothing, and space heaters you can find. There should be a small generator in the utility room you guys can power up to plug everything in until the storm lets out. I’ll be down there soon.”

“Whoa, wait!” Galo suddenly skid into his path on his socks, blocking it. “I’m not letting you go out in a fucking blizzard!”

Lio growled, dangerous. _Warning_. 

“He’s right, boss,” Gueira chimed at his ear. “You guys worry about yourselves. Meis and I got it handled on our end. We’ll keep everyone safe and toasty.”

“I’m going to _help_,” Lio insisted.

“You’ve done more than enough today.” He could practically hear the cheeky little smile in his General’s tone. “Besides, this is a prime cuddle opportunity for you and the big guy.”

Lio bristled, even as heat flooded into his cheeks. “Gueira.”

“Toodles!”

And then he was gone, forcing Lio to shove his cell back into his pocket with a curse. This wasn’t good. He could already feel a subtle shift in the apartment, senses locked onto the way the temperature had slowly begun its plunge. Cold settling in like a veil of frosted spider silk being draped over his skin, Lio wilted as he wrapped both arms around himself, scowling miserably. 

“Now what?” He grumbled.

Galo nodded firmly, determined. “We get you warm.”

* * *

“This is a little excessive.”

His voice was lost, muffled heavily by the three fleece throws cocooned around his slight form like an overstuffed sushi roll. Galo, ignoring his words entirely in the way only Galo knew how to do, dragged over the fifteen-pound weighted blanket from the guest room Lio had moved into and flung it over his lap, causing him to grunt.

“There! All snoodled up and toasty!”

“Snoodled?”

Galo grinned, wiping his hands together as he admired his job well done. “You need more socks? A hat?”

Lio glared half-heartedly up at him from beneath the pale fringe of his bangs. “I can’t move.”

“Considering you were just about to rush out into a blizzard ten minutes ago, I can’t say that’s a bad thing, firebug.”

Lio’s eyes narrowed, a challenge. “You can’t trap me here.”

“Can and will. Just watch.”

Lio did in fact watch, eyes widening, as Galo threw himself down onto the couch at his side with enough force to jostle the once-Burnish Leader where he sat. He could do nothing, especially as broad arms looped around his middle without warning and dragged him backward, gathering Lio up against the broad expanse of that chest. Beneath the blankets, his muscles went rigid, breath catching, heart heaving up into his throat as Galo’s exhale gusted against the back of his neck.

Oh… 

Oh, he was warm. Like Burnish fire. Like _home_.

“W-What are you doing?” Lio managed, breathless. His eyes fluttered closed, and he had to fight the urge to press back against Galo’s solid body and soak in that delicious heat. 

“Everyone tells me I’m a human furnace, so might as well put it to use,” Galo responded, chin coming to rest against Lio’s shoulder. “This okay?”

“Yeah, just…” Lio felt the tension melt from his shoulders and he audibly sighed. “Yeah.”

Without power, the world was deafening in its silence around them, which only heightened the roar of Lio’s heart within his own ears. A part of him wondered if Galo was able to feel it slamming against the inside of his ribcage, jostling the bones with enough force to nearly shatter them.

“Listen…” Galo finally spoke into the surrounding dark, fingers fiddling with a stray thread on one of the many blankets enveloping Lio. “I’ve been meaning to thank you.”

Lio cocked a brow. “For what?”

“Things have been kind of chaotic lately, between cleaning up the city with Burning Rescue and helping get the Burnish settled, and…” His voice broke. “And, uh… and Kray.”

Lio turned his head just enough to study Galo’s profile, strong and handsome and gilded by the moonlight cutting through the storm. The insurmountable emptiness he saw as the other man gazed off into the middle distance was startling on one so normally full of passion and life. It was at that moment that Lio came to realize he wasn’t the only one who felt a large part of himself snuffed out.

He would have given the world for the power to reignite it. To make Galo whole once more.

“I’ve been a mess and you’ve been so ridiculously patient with me,” Galo continued, shrugging. “I don’t know if I would have been able to deal with all of this without you. So… thanks.”

With some effort, Lio was able to wriggle his uninjured hand from beneath the fortress of blankets. He balled it into a fist, the leather of his glove creaking with the motion, then held it up for Galo to bump as he always did. He offered a gentle smile. “Hey. Partners, right?”

What he didn’t expect, however, was for Galo to respond to the offered fist by gently peeling it open just enough to slip his much larger hand within and twine their fingers tightly together. “Partners.”

Lio’s heart took off at a gallop, grateful for the darkness of the room as it masked the flush he felt creep up into his ears, especially as Galo gazed down at him, throat bobbing through a thick swallow. Like he was hesitant to say something. His eyes were so gentle, and it reminded Lio of Meis’ words from earlier that night.

_We see the way he looks at you._

“Y’know, I still think about it?” Galo whispered through a small laugh as he scrubbed a hand over the shaved side of his head. “Dumb as it sounds.”

Lio’s mind was whirling. “Still think about what?”

“Our first kiss.”

He wheeled around in the much larger man’s grip, brows knit together in bewilderment. His heart was going to come out of his fucking throat at this rate. “Our…? Galo, we’ve never kissed before.”

“I know it wasn’t _technically_ a kiss, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the night we sent the Promare back. The night I almost lost you…” His thumb brushed across the back of Lio’s gloved knuckles with enough tenderness to make him shiver. There was something in his expression, a hollowness, like he was thinking back on the devastating moment in vivid clarity. “You were crumbling to ashes in my arms. I was desperate, and scared, and pleading for you to stay with me…”

Lio couldn’t remember that part. He hadn’t been conscious. He had nearly slipped away, unable to feel the warmth of Galo’s lips, or taste that fleeting connection that had returned him to earth.

“I put my mouth on your mouth and breathed you back to life with your own fire.” Galo smiled broad enough to crinkle the corners of his eyes. “I still think about the way you looked afterward, and the relief I felt when I knew you were still with me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop.”

The warmth of a single tear rushed down Lio’s cheek. When had he started crying? 

“Do it again.”

Now it was Galo’s turn to look confused. “W-What?”

Lio curled his fingers into the red fabric of his hoodie and tugged, intending for his voice to be firm. Calm and commanding. 

Not the case. 

His words caught in his throat, making him sound just as desperate as he felt inside. “Kiss me properly. _Now_.”

Their exhales collided between them in a wild flurry, a furious storm, wave upon wave of trembling breaths that bathed their lips in scalding heat. A dance. A test. After an agonizing stretch of time, Galo leaned in, ghosting his mouth over Lio’s, but not yet giving him what he’d demanded, drawing away just as Lio attempted to close the distance.

“This isn’t right,” Galo frowned.

Lio’s face fell.

“If I’m going to do it properly, I want it to be just like that night,” Galo explained, before suddenly hefting the much smaller man into his arms with ease. “Y’know, just with less death.”

“Galo!” Lio yelped, wriggling in protest as he was manhandled across the couch cushions, made to lay flat on his back. 

The blankets that had trapped the once-Burnish Leader in place loosened their hold with the shift in movement, letting the chill apartment air bleed through to caress his skin, but Lio felt none of it. Not with the way Galo was suddenly kneeling above him, wild blue spikes sweeping down to tickle the curve of his cheek. Impossibly broad. Impossibly strong. Impossibly gentle. Lio felt fingers slip beneath the back of his head, cradling it preciously as they weaved through the soft fluff of his hair.

“This hand was here, and my other one was…” Galo placed two more fingers on the edge of Lio’s jaw and gently tilted his face up. Finally, he smiled, warm as summer and immensely satisfied. “Right here.”

Fuck.

Lio was going to come undone, especially as Galo gazed at his parted lips with a kind of hunger that made his fingers curl into the blankets beneath them. 

“I’m nervous,” he heard Galo admit breathlessly.

Lio’s stomach fluttered. “Why?”

“Because it’s you.”

A blink. “Me?”

The fingers tilting his jaw shifted to cup it instead, letting Lio bask in the warmth of Galo’s massive palm swallowing up the side of his face. His thumb dragged along Lio’s bottom lip, forcing his mouth to fall open further while a strange, bubbling heat built in his gut.

“You…” Galo studied his features with those sparkling cornflower blues, memorizing them as if for the first and last time. “Firebug.”

“You keep calling me that,” Lio swallowed as his heart twisted in a hundred conflicting ways. 

“Do you not want me to?”

“No, I do… I do.” Lio shook his head before lifting his bandaged hand between them. He could feel his pulse pounding beneath the scorched skin, each thump like a dagger into his heart reminding him of everything he no longer was. “But I’m not a Burnish anymore, Galo. My fire is gone. I’m all burnt out.”

“Lio… with or without your Promare, you _are_ fire. Blazing and bright and all-consuming. A beacon of warmth and comfort for your people. And for me.” Gingerly, Galo gathered Lio’s injured hand in his own and placed a kiss to the back of it, his breath shaky as it soaked into the gauze, right above the dumb little fire truck band-aid. “The only fire in the world I would sooner die than extinguish.”

In that instant, something clicked. Shifted. Changed. Like a light being turned on in a dark room.

Like the scattered pieces of his life came together at last in the shape of Galo Thymos.

With a desperate sound, Lio surged himself up onto his elbows and crashed their mouths together, pulling a startled moan from the depths of Galo’s throat that he swallowed up like a greedy gulp of air. And those dying embers within him, smoldering in the choking ashes of the person he’d once been…

_Ignited._

Galo’s initial surprise wore off faster than expected, mouth falling pliant against Lio’s before returning the gesture with the enthusiasm of a starved wildfire as he caged the much smaller man down against the cushions. Galo kissed the way he lived, the way he worked, throwing the entirety of himself into it with reckless abandon. A dizzying collision of lips and teeth and a breathless smile curved against Lio’s own, huffing a small laugh between kisses. Unfathomably joyful in all of Galo’s ways, the beam of glittering sunlight that had illuminated the shadows of Lio’s life.

His heart did something ecstatic in his chest, especially as Galo drew away just enough to regard him with quiet, slack-jawed reverence. The very tips of their noses brushed. A tender nuzzle in the darkness.

“That…” the other man smiled breathlessly. “…was _way_ better than our first kiss.”

Lio snorted out a laugh, head shaking. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Maybe,” Galo smirked, feathering their mouths together. “But you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Lio’s gloved hand sunk into the back of those feathery blue spikes and clutched tightly in response, yanking just enough for Lio to hear the hitch of Galo’s gasp. 

“Fuck, L-Lio…” Galo’s powerful arms quivered at Lio’s sides as he struggled to hold himself up.

“Open your mouth,” Lio whispered. “Give me your tongue.”

Oh, and Galo obeyed beautifully, always so eager to please. His lips fell open, gifting Lio access to that deliciously wet heat just begging to be devoured. Lio slid their tongues together in a possessive claim and suckled sweetly, deeply, the sensation pulling a heady groan from Galo that rushed like a lightning strike straight to his cock.

He tugged impatiently at the hem of Galo’s red hoodie. “This. Off. Now.”

Galo obliged delightedly, sitting back on his ankles as he promptly attempted to tear himself free of the wretched fabric keeping their skin apart. However, those overzealous hands fumbled and tugged in all the wrong order, and soon enough the hoodie, as well as the t-shirt he’d been wearing beneath, was stuck around his head, trapping one of his arms in an awkward position. Galo growled and wriggled desperately, which only seemed to restrain him further.

“Uh… little help?” He pleaded, voice muffled.

“Hang on, dummy, I got you,” Lio snickered and shoved at the other man’s broad chest, forcing him to lay back against the couch’s arm before his lap was promptly straddled. He settled his weight down slowly, letting Galo savor the press and warmth of his splayed thighs, slender and willowy and weighing next to nothing in comparison to the hulk of a fireman beneath. “Got a little excited, Thymos?”

“H-How could I not?!” Galo’s hips hitched up into the unexpected weight of Lio atop them.

“Mm… maybe I should just leave you like this,” Lio contemplated aloud, gloved hand flattening upon the rippled expanse of Galo’s exposed abdomen. He could feel that sumptuous warmth bleeding out from his skin, and he grinned as Galo’s muscles twitched at the contact. Feeling bold, he even dropped a small, teasing kiss just below one of his nipples. “Can’t say I’ve ever minded this view.”

Galo whined from within his cotton-blend prison, legs writhing impatiently as goosebumps scattered across his skin. “Lio!”

Feeling merciful, Lio helped tug the t-shirt and hoodie upward and off Galo’s tangled arms. His head of mussed blue spikes quickly followed, and he popped free with a loud gasp of air like a man near-drowned. Galo’s cheeks were flushed deeply, and Lio smirked victoriously as he tossed the garments aside, basking in the way the shadows of the room cut sharply across that massive torso.

Not that he hadn’t seen it a thousand times before, with how stubborn Galo was about fighting fires completely shirtless. But it felt different now, being able to strip him down with his own hands and soak up the broad expanse of his body for his eyes alone.

“There,” Lio smiled. “Better?”

Wordlessly, Galo’s arms slipped around Lio’s middle and drew him flush against the heat of his bare chest, the gesture still so very hesitant and unsure. That alone caused Lio’s heart to falter where it beat, forcing the heat of lust to briefly drop to a low simmer beneath his skin. His eyes fluttered back into his head as Galo’s mouth suddenly sought out the side of his neck, each gentle brush scorching his skin like a brand.

“You smell good,” Galo hummed, lips and nose nuzzling at the graceful line of his throat, kisses roaming downward. “Like roses burning in a campfire.”

“That’s so weirdly specific,” Lio laughed softly, a wistful little sound bubbling forth as Galo placed a kiss upon his collarbone. He wound the fingers of his good hand through the other man’s hair, throat tightening at the quiet intimacy of the moment, so different from the frantic desperation of his quickies with Gueira and Meis.

Because this wasn’t him desperate to get off. Desperate to forget. Desperate to burn.

Because this was _Galo_.

The only fire Lio would ever need.

“Galo Thymos, why are you so sweet?” He heard himself whisper, an unexpected storm of emotion searing behind his eyes as Galo’s mouth travelled up the other side of his neck, seeking out his pulse point as it fluttered like hummingbird wings beneath his skin.

“Sweet on you,” Galo breathed, then sank his teeth into the tender spot just below Lio’s pierced ear.

Lio groaned, high and shameless.

“Can you take this off?” Galo asked while giving the fabric of Lio’s t-shirt a little tug. “You can say no. I don’t want you getting cold.”

“How could I?” Lio smirked, before shucking his shirt off faster than Galo could react. “With your burning firefighter soul to keep me warm?”

He didn’t expect the startling kiss that followed, fierce and fast and bruising, those massive hands smothering each side of his face as Galo yanked him forward into it with desperate joy. Lio huffed a pleased little laugh, then fully collapsed into the sensation, arms winding around the other man’s strong neck and latching on like the flame in his heart depended on it.

“God, you get me so fucking fired up, Lio Fotia,” Galo whispered as he senselessly devoured his mouth with kisses, calloused fingers skimming from Lio’s cheeks and down, dancing delicately over the bumps of his ribcage to settle against the sharp juts of his hips. 

Despite the intensity of his kiss, Galo’s thumbs brushed slow, reverent circles against Lio’s heated skin. A quiet sort of worship the once-Burnish Leader wasn’t entirely sure what to do with. He knew loyalty. He knew devotion. He knew the love of his Generals and of his people. But this…

This was something he hadn’t been prepared for, and it both thrilled and terrified Lio, how much he ached for it in the furthest reaches of his soul.

He knew then and there that if he had been granted a choice between Galo and the return of his fire, he would choose Galo.

He would choose Galo every time.

“I want to make you feel good,” Galo said, and those hands of his dared to maneuver even lower, making Lio tremble as they began to knead the willowy muscle of his thighs. “I want to make you happy.”

“Idiot,” Lio exhaled as he gave his hips an experimental grind forward, aching within his jeans as he sought out the long, hardened shape of Galo’s cock beneath him. “You already do.”

The strangled sound of surprised pleasure Galo suddenly made was something Lio wanted to bottle up and store in his memories for the rest of his life. 

“Oh f-fuck, Lio…”

He felt Galo grasp onto the soft swell of his ass, fingers bruising into his clothed cheeks as Lio gave his hips a slow, sensuous roll that made his own breath catch in his throat. “This okay?”

Galo whimpered and slumped forward, sweat-mottled forehead pressed to Lio’s clavicle. He gave a full-body shudder, shoulders flushed pink. “Y-Yeah.”

Overcome with adoration, Lio pressed his lips to Galo’s temple and held him in the protective cradle of his arms as he began a steadily building rhythm, clothed cocks rutting together until the squeal of the rocking couch echoed louder than the storm outside. Galo’s head drunkenly fell back through a whine, eyes glassy as they gazed up at Lio’s face with the same level of awe he’d seen before, slack-jawed and breathless. 

Tiny sounds bubbled from his lips, too incoherent for Lio to make any sense of the words. Each grind forward gifted him a sharp little gasp amidst the gibberish.

“You’re sensitive,” Lio observed, feeling sweat build and trickle down the back of his own neck as he pressed his hips down and circled them slowly, sliding over the thickness of Galo’s shaft. His nerve endings were alight, burning low and hot as blue flame beneath his skin. He ran the backs of his gloved fingers over the sharp edge of Galo’s jaw. “I wonder what kind of sounds you’ll make when I fuck you.”

Galo’s eyes widened.

“Mm. Would you like that?” Lio leaned in, letting the hot wash of his breath scald the shell of Galo’s ear, fighting to keep his voice steady and failing. “W-Would you like me to fuck you, Thymos? Would you like to see me between those big thighs of yours, pounding you senselessly into the mattress until you can’t remember who you are? Your pretty little waist will look so… s-so good under my hands as I hold you on my cock until you scream.”

Galo groaned loudly, hips stuttering upward in an attempt to match Lio’s rutting with some of his own. It was clumsy and desperate and oh… oh just right. One of his hands wound through the back of Lio’s hair, burying in the dampened strands and yanking. _Hard_. Lio keened as his head was forced backward, exposing the bob of his adam’s apple for Galo’s mouth to mark up with his teeth and tongue. He could feel little bruises being pulled to the surface, blooming dark against his pale skin, a claim he’s certain the others will be curious about come morning.

Good. Let them know. 

“F-Firebug, please…” Galo whined against his throat. “Please, hah… a-ah, please, p-please…”

“Or m-maybe I’ll just let you fuck me,” Lio continued fearlessly, panting out each word, the air between their bodies crackling with heat and energy. His bangs clung to his brow. “How about it? Would you like to feel me all tight and warm around you, Galo? You’re so f-fucking big, but I bet I could take all of you. I bet I could squeeze around every inch and make you come nice and deep inside me.”

“Fuck!” Galo’s other hand scrambled for purchase on the leather cushions beneath them, his skin glistening, his hair drooping limp. He was coming apart at the seams. So hot, too hot; a wildfire in the shape of a man. “Lio, I’m n-not gonna last if you keep t-talking like that…”

“Good…” Lio gasped, lashes fluttering. “W-Wanna see it. Wanna hear it.”

Galo nearly sobbed, face buried against the crook of Lio’s shoulder as they rocked together in the darkness. “Lio… Lio… ohhhhhh god, L-Lio… I can’t… I c-can’t, I’m so close… please, I’m close…”

“C’mon, baby, c’mon,” Lio gathered up Galo’s face into his hands, forcing their eyes to meet in the haze. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

Their mouths met in a kiss that tasted of chaos and smoke and cinders, smoldering and deep. When Galo came with a broken shout after one, two, three more rolls of their hips, Lio held him through it, clinging tight as the man beneath him rode the waves of his release. Galo clutched at his bare back, blunt nails scraping trails that burned against his shoulder blades. More marks. More claims. More ways of him knowing that this was just as real as his flames had once been, and not some distorted fantasy dangling just out of reach.

Lio slowed the motion of his hips, still wretchedly, achingly hard within his own jeans, lingering on the edge of that wildfire he’d been chasing with Meis and Gueira in the months since losing his Promare. But that was the very least of his priorities right now, fingers carding through feathery spikes as the man beneath him slowly settled into the afterglow.

“L-Lio…” Galo panted against his ear. “Oh, Lio.”

“Shh,” Lio soothed, leaning down to pepper kisses across Galo’s sweat-slickened shoulder, seeking out the rough edge of where his burn scars began. 

The world teetered around them in a blink, and Lio yelped, suddenly finding himself flat on his back with Galo looming just above. He opened his mouth to question it but was cut off by a kiss just before Galo’s fingers snapped open the clasp of his jeans and slipped inside in a single move.

Lio jolted, spine arcing as Galo took him into the warmth of his hand. “Oh, holy sh-shit…”

“I know you’re close, and I wasn’t about to just lay there and not return the favor,” Galo murmured, lips brushing against the curve of his cheek. He stroked Lio quickly, palm passing over his leaking crown as he pumped him from base to tip. “That ain’t me.”

Lio wrapped the fingers of his good hand around the back of Galo’s neck and brought their foreheads together. “Ohhhhhh _god_.”

He could feel it; the heat building higher and higher in his abdomen, scorching him from within, threatening to decimate anything and everything in its wake. His nerves were singing. His heartbeat was a volcanic roar. Lio choked out a moan, writhing in blissful agony as Galo pushed him closer and closer to his inevitable end with every stroke. Wild and maddening, pulling at his frayed edges and letting him come apart in pieces.

“Yeah, that’s it, firebug,” came the whisper against his face. “Burn. Burn for me.”

A single tear tumbled down Lio's temple and into his hair as he came in thick, hot ribbons across his stomach, shouting the name of the man he thought blazed brighter than the sun and stars of his sky.

At last.

“G-Galo!”

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing the film in theaters four times, behold my very first PROMARE fanfic. This was an absolute blast to write and I hope I did these two lovesick idiots justice. They're just such good boys. They needed this.
> 
> Feel free to follow me on my Twitter @ TheTrickyOwl for lots of PROMARE content


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